Northeast Historical Archaeology Volume 42 Foodways on the Menu: Understanding the Lives of Households and Communities through the Article 3 Interpretation of Meals and Food-Related Practices
2013 Dining with John and Catharine Butler before the Close of the Eighteenth Century Eva MacDonald
Suzanne Needs-Howarth
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Recommended Citation MacDonald, Eva and Needs-Howarth, Suzanne (2013) "Dining with John and Catharine Butler before the Close of the Eighteenth Century," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 42 42, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol42/iss1/3 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol42/iss1/3
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 29
Dining with John and Catharine Butler before the Close of the Eighteenth Century
Eva MacDonald and Suzanne Needs-Howarth The partial excavation of the homestead of Colonel John Butler in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has afforded the opportunity to explore the daily activities of one Loyalist family after the establishment of the British colony of Upper Canada in the 1780s. In particular, the large collection of zooarchaeological material (over 14,500 specimens) can provide information about the availability of wild animal species, as well as the types of domestic animals that the Butlers kept on their farm. Butchering marks provide further insight into the types of meat cuts used in cooking meals for the family and guests. These are compared and contrasted with the ceramic and glass vessels, so that these analyses can be brought together to paint a picture of what it might have been like to dine with John and Catharine Butler before the close of the 18th century. La fouille partielle de la propriété familiale du colonel John Butler dans la petite ville de Niagara- on-the-Lake a permis d’explorer les activités quotidiennes d’une famille de Loyalistes après que la colonie Britannique du Haut-Canada ait été établie dans les années 1780. On remarque en particulier l’imposante collection de matériel zooarchéologique, représentant plus de 14 500 spécimens. L’étude de cette collection permet d’obtenir de l’information sur la disponibilité des espèces d’animaux sauvages ainsi que les types d’animaux domestiques que la famille Butler gardait sur la ferme. Des marques de boucherie nous permettent de connaître les coupes de viande utilisées pour les repas de la famille et de leurs invités. Le matériel zooarchéologique a ensuite été comparé aux contenants de céramique et de verre. Interprétées conjointement, ces analyses dressent un portrait nous permettant d’imaginer l’heure du repas chez John et Catharine Butler avant la fin du XVIIIe siècle.
Introduction the Indian Department (W. Wilson 1991: 53). Catharine died in 1793, and John died in 1796. The disruption that the Revolutionary War brought to the Butler family was over by 1784. Accounts of the skirmishes that took place on Colonel John Butler’s celebrated rangers, who the farm during the War of 1812 indicate that fought on the side of the Crown, had been their son Johnson Butler was the next occupant disbanded. Newark, settled on the west side of of their house, although it was his brother the Niagara River under Butler’s supervision Andrew who inherited a 100 ac. parcel (today known as Niagara-on-the-Lake), was including the home. The home was destroyed four years old, and John Butler was reunited when the American occupiers of Niagara with his wife, Catharine, and their youngest retreated in December of 1813, and the site children, who were held hostage during the was never reoccupied (Archaeological war (Ormsby 1991: 15). It was the wish of Services, Inc. [ASI] 2011: 10–13). government officials like Frederick Haldimand In 1999, a portion of Colonel John Butler’s that the new Loyalist society of Upper Canada homestead was salvage excavated in advance be founded on a military hierarchy, with lands of the development of a residential subdivision. of the rank-and-file soldiers grouped around First, 361 m2 of topsoil were hand-excavated, the holdings of their former officers (W. yielding 80% of the artifact assemblage. The Wilson 1991: 46). Thus, the Butler home features (fig. 2) were excavated after the balance comprised a 500 ac. farm on Two Mile Creek of the topsoil had been removed by machine. (fig. 1). As the former commander of Loyalist The first structure that sheltered the Butler forces at Niagara, Butler was called upon to family was probably a log cabin, the location provide leadership in the new society, and he of which was marked by a subfloor pit gained a measure of public standing through (Feature 7) that was backfilled with a substantial his participation in the affairs of the fledgling amount of midden material (n=10,698 artifacts) province of Ontario as a judge for the Nassau after a larger frame home was built 10 m to the District Court of Common Pleas, as a justice of south (fig. 2). In particular, the excavation of the peace, and as the local superintendent of the dry-laid stone foundation demonstrated 30 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Figure 1. Location of the Butler Homestead site (AhGs-18). (Map by Archaeological Services Inc., 2011.) that the second Butler home was modest and until significant numbers of British immigrants “organic” in form, having evolved over time and began to arrive after 1815 (Wood 2000: 28, 51). It not conforming to any particular architectural is obvious from the material culture recovered style (fig. 2). It certainly was not in the grand at the Butler Homestead site that, as important style of Johnson Hall, the New York State figures in colonial society and as members of home of the Butler family patron Sir William the middle class in their new home, John and Johnson (Huey and Pulis 1997: 25–39). The Catharine Butler regularly entertained guests variation in wall construction between shallow on a relatively grand scale. The Georgian red shale and more substantial fieldstone, even meal system, to which the Butlers conformed, within the same part of the structure, is note- reinforced social ties and displayed the wealth worthy. The use of loose stone for foundations of the hosts through the table setting and the appears to be a hallmark of early buildings in meals chosen. While few settlers could afford Ontario, because the Government House and to buy the best wares on offer in the local other pre–War of 1812 buildings at Fort York shops (Wilson 1975: 216), the Butlers owned (Webb 1994), and the first Parliament of Upper expensive ceramics, such as Chinese export Canada (Dieterman and Williamson 2001) porcelain, black basalt, and rosso antico (ASI were also constructed in this manner. 2011: table 2), the latter of which had been The substantial assemblage of more than developed by Wedgwood for tea and coffee 106,000 artifacts, including 50,082 ceramic services (Kaellgren 2009: 17). The Butler site also sherds (ASI 2011: 24), affords an opportunity yielded the largest analyzed zooarchaeological to examine the daily life of two generations of assemblage (n=14,616) from a domestic site in this important Loyalist family. Although the rural Ontario. The objectives of the analysis assemblage spans the period between 1784 were to establish what taxa were present and in and 1813, the daily marketing activities and which proportions (based on bone counts), and provisions available to Johnson Butler’s family to estimate the minimum number of individuals would not have differed much from those (MNI, based on element duplication, side, of his parents, given the slow growth of portion present, and state of epiphyseal Upper Canada’s population and mercantile fusion), age at death (based on known biological- infrastructure during the pioneer period up age range in months of tooth eruption and until the end of the War of 1812. Growth and epiphyseal fusion), and the body portions changes in the rural economy did not come present (Needs-Howarth 2010a). Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 31
Figure 2. Butler Homestead settlement pattern. (Map by Archaeological Services Inc., 2011.)
The Georgian Dinner recipes attributed to Mrs. Glasse made their way into the cookery manuscripts of What would it have been like to dine with Jefferson’s granddaughters (Hess 1997: v). One John and Catharine Butler before the close of edition used in this analysis (Glasse 1774) was the 18th century? A hypothetical meal can be published ten years before the initial Butler reconstructed from the zooarchaeological data site occupation, while the other is an 1805 displaying evidence of meat cuts that can be American edition that might have been linked to the recipes and ingredients found familiar to Johnson Butler’s family (Glasse in 18th-century cookbooks. Hannah Glasse’s 1805). It is interesting to note that while a Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was first number of Glasse’s most famous recipes were published in England in 1747, and, because of omitted from the American edition, this edition its popularity, it appeared in numerous revised did not include any new recipes, and both the editions sold in both England and the colonies. 1774 and 1805 editions contain recipes no older Indeed, Thomas Jefferson owned a copy, and than the mid-18th century (Hess 1997: viii). 32 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Glasse’s cookbook is particularly useful be they meat or sweet puddings and pies. Those because it provides suggested menus that who wished to be fashionable incorporated assist in the recreation of a fine Georgian French cookery practices, which required a more dinner, with its multiple prepared foods and extensive set of basic utensils (Stead 1985: 10) several courses. The serving dishes were to be and placed more emphasis on vegetables, as laid out correctly and symmetrically on a long, well as on ragouts or fricassees, which were rectangular table, and many 18th-century referred to as “made” dishes in the recipe cookery books provided diagrams. The host books (Thick 1998: 28–29). and hostess undertook the carving and serving Meal times changed during the 18th century. of the top and bottom dishes, with the guests Dinner, which was the principal hot meal of helping themselves and their neighbors to the the day, came later for the British middle dishes that were near to them (Stead 1985: 17). classes, so that by the late 18th century it was Three courses were expected at middle- at 3 or 4 P.M., three hours later than the dinner class tables. The first course always consisted hour of the 1600s (Brears 2004: 87). This was of meats (roasted, boiled, stewed, and fried), supplemented by the addition of a tea meal, some of which were accompanied by sauces. If which comprised a light repast served in the soup was on the bill of fare, a tureen of soup early evening with tea as the beverage (Wilson was placed on the table as part of the meat 2004: xiii). The adoption of coffee, chocolate, course. The soup was served first, and then the and tea by English cuisine in the late 17th cen- tureen was removed, with a serving dish con- tury necessitated new, special vessel forms, taining fish replacing it. After this, the meat such as cups, pots, kettles, and urns. The was served (Stead 1985: 15). When the first taking of tea became an elegant ceremony at course was removed, a second was put in its which the mistress of the house could show off place, not always with an equal number of dishes, but always symmetrically placed. her best china (Stead 1985: 22). These were lighter dishes of meat and fish, contrasted with sweet pies, puddings, and tarts. Setting the Table Small side dishes of pickles and condiments So, what would a meal served to guests at stayed on the table throughout both courses. the Butler house have looked like? With The tablecloth was removed for the final dessert respect to the Butler ceramic assemblage, the course of jellies, sweetmeats, fruits, nuts, and minimum number of food- and beverage- cheese (Stead 1985: 15). related vessels, based on unique rim profiles, Until the iron cooking stove was adopted ware type, and decoration, is 251; of these, 221 for culinary practice in Ontario in the second are refined tea- and tablewares (ASI 2011: table quarter of the 19th century, the standard way 2). The presence of 12 meat dishes, both flat to cook food was “down hearth,” over an open platters for roasts (fig. 3) and deep dishes to hold fire. In this respect, practices in Upper Canada ragouts, as well as one sauceboat, indicates differed from those of England. There, the iron that the Butler family was equipped to serve grate with its coal fuel was standard in kitchens from 1700 onward (Stead 1985: 7). dinners to its guests in the classic Georgian Both facilities were conducive to roasting, style. No soup plates or tureens were identified, which was the most favored way of cooking so it would seem that the formality of starting meat, with boiling the second choice, and with a soup was not practiced. The food was stewing also popular (Stead 1985: 7). Baking accompanied by wine, served in stemmed was done in a separate masonry chamber built drinking glasses, as evinced by the 15 unique into the fireplace. Those who lacked a stems in the glass tableware assemblage. masonry oven could bake in portable ovens Catharine Butler also could hold elegant tea lined with tin and put close to the fire, or in parties using delicate porcelain tea bowls covered pots that could be banked with wood and saucers with fashionable rococo fluted coals, known in North America as Dutch bodies, enamel flowers, and gilt accents (fig. 4). ovens or bake kettles (Stead 1985: x, 9). A sterling -silver teaspoon, with a London The majority of people of English ancestry hallmark dating to 1792, further emphasizes preferred plain foods, either roasted or boiled, the quality of the table settings. Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 33
Figure 3. Reconstructed pearlware meat dish found in the builder’s trench of the stone foundation. (Photo by Archaeological Services Inc., 2011.)
Analysis of the Provisions American Revolution. The British government did supply the colonists with provisions to Provisioning would not have been a bolster the new settlement, and Butler’s official problem, given the town of Newark’s merchant survey, conducted in 1782, enumerated horses, links, both to Albany and the eastern seaboard, cattle, sheep, and hogs (Cruikshank 1893: 111). and to Montreal and the Atlantic world The faunal inventory includes 39 unique taxa through the fur trade, which was still important, (tab. 1), including the three major domesticates, albeit diminishing, at the close of the 18th cow, pig, and sheep, as well as a wide variety century (Duncan 1991). Barrels of salt cod, of wild species, especially deer and sturgeon. liquor of all types, spices, and citrus fruit Sheep was positively identified, but goat was could be obtained to complement what was not. The fact that many elements of sheep and grown in the garden and raised on the farm. goat are difficult to distinguish osteologically Livestock was a valuable asset in the pioneer (Boessneck 1969; Prummel and Frisch 1986) has settlement, and John Butler’s will specified resulted in numerous Ovis aries/Capra hircus that his granddaughter Catharine Butler was identifications. Additionally, the difficulties in to inherit all the cattle from his farm (Hunter separating sheep/goat from deer, based on 1921: 332). The origin of the livestock is not post-cervical vertebrae and some incomplete known, although it most certainly did not elements (see e.g., Chavez 2008) have come from the Mohawk Valley, as Butler’s resulted in numerous “Artiodactyla sheep/ property there was confiscated during the deer size” identifications. 34 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Figure 4. Reconstructed porcelain saucer with a rococo fluted body and enamel flowers with gilt accents. (Photo by Archaeological Services Inc., 2011.)
Two sections of cattle cranium from Feature 7 for cattle prior to 1850 in Annapolis, Maryland had attached horn cores (MNI=1). While sexing (Reitz and Ruff 1994), and fall within the ranges cattle based on horn cores is problematic (Sykes for cattle from Quebec (Cossette and Horard- and Symmons 2007), this find does narrow Herbin 2003). The sample size of measurable down the breed options to those in which at bones is far too small, however, to allow for least one of the sexes carried horns. Five items any statistically valid conclusions. identified as cow were complete enough for The task of characterizing the meals, as osteometry (tab. 2). It is interesting to note that represented by the meat cuts in the Butler the measurements exceed the ranges recorded faunal assemblage, is complicated by the Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 35
Table 1. Zooarchaeological findings summarized as NISP and MNI.
Taxon Common name NISP % of class % of total MNI Bivalvia Clams 38 100.0 — 2 Total Bivalvia 38 — 0.3 — Gastropoda Snails [likely intrusive land snail] 18 100.0 — [not calculated] Total Gastropoda 18 — 0.1 — Actinopterygii Ray-finned fishes 152 59.6 — — Acipenser fulvescens Lake sturgeon 50 19.6 — 1 Coregonus sp. Whitefishes 5 2.0 — 1 Gadidae Cods 4 1.6 — — Lota lota Burbot 1 0.4 — 1 Cypriniformes Minnows/suckers 1 0.4 — — Catostomidae Suckers 3 1.2 — — Catostomus catostomus Longnose sucker 1 0.4 — 1 Ictaluridae Bullhead catfishes 6 2.4 — — Ameiurus sp. Black, yellow, or brown bullhead 5 2.0 — 1 Perciformes Perch-like fishes 5 2.0 — — Centrarchidae Sunfishes 4 1.6 — — Micropterus sp. Small- or largemouth bass 6 2.4 — 1 Sander sp. Walleye or sauger 4 1.6 — 1 Aplodinotus grunniens Freshwater drum 8 3.1 — 1 Total Actinopterygii 255 — 1.7 — Anura Frogs and toads [likely intrusive] 35 100.0 — [not calculated] Total Amphibia 35 — 0.2 — Testudines Turtles 6 75.0 — — Chelydra serpentina Snapping turtle 2 25.0 — 1 Total Reptilia 8 — 0.1 — Aves Birds 19 3.2 — — Aves pigeon size Birds 73 12.3 — — Aves chicken/duck size Birds 280 47.2 — — Aves goose/turkey size Birds 48 8.1 — — Aves song-bird size Birds 5 0.8 — — Botaurus lentiginosus American bittern 4 0.7 — 1 Anatidae goose size Ducks, geese, and swans 4 0.7 — 1 Anatidae duck size Ducks, geese, and swans 61 10.3 — — Anas sp. Dabbling ducks 6 1.0 — — Anas platyrhynchos Mallard 4 0.7 — 2 Mergus/Lophodytes sp. Merganser 1 0.2 — 1 Gallus gallus Red junglefowl [here: chicken] 54 9.1 — 4 36 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Table 1. Zooarchaeological findings summarized as NISP and MNI (continued).
Taxon Common name NISP % of class % of total MNI Meleagris gallopavo Wild turkey [here: wild or 13 2.2 — 2 domesticated turkey] Columbidae Pigeons 9 1.5 — 1 Ectopistes migratorius Passenger pigeon 12 2.0 — 2 Total Aves 593 — 4.1 — Aves or Mammalia Birds or mammals 98 100.0 — — Total Aves/Mammalia 98 — 0.7 — Mammalia Mammals 2 0.0 — — Mammalia mouse size Mammals 2 0.0 — — Mammalia squirrel size Mammals 58 0.4 — — Mammalia squirrel to Mammals 85 0.6 — — beaver size Mammalia beaver/dog Mammals 6 0.0 — — size Mammalia dog to deer Mammals 10,117 74.7 — — size Mammalia pig/sheep/ Mammals 1,516 11.2 — — goat size Mammalia cow/horse Mammals 799 5.9 — — size Oryctolagus cuniculus European rabbit 1 0.0 — 1 Tamias striatus Eastern chipmunk 1 0.0 — 1 Sciurus carolinensis Gray squirrel 53 0.4 — 5 Castor canadensis American beaver 2 0.0 — 1 Rattus norvegicus Norway rat 2 0.0 — 1 Ondatra zibethicus Muskrat 12 0.1 — 3 Microtus pennsylvanicus Meadow vole 3 0.0 — 3 Canidae Coyotes, dogs, foxes, jackals, wolves 2 0.0 — 1 Canidae/Ursidae Canids or bears 1 0.0 — — Ursus americanus American black bear 2 0.0 — 1 Procyon lotor Raccoon 11 0.1 — 2 Mephitis mephitis Striped skunk 2 0.0 — 1 Felis catus Domestic cat 3 0.0 — 1 Equus caballus Horse 1 0.0 — 1 Artiodactyla sheep/ Even-toed ungulates 51 0.4 — — deer size Artiodactyla cow size Even-toed ungulates 11 0.1 — — Sus scrofa Pig 415 3.1 — 8 Cervidae deer/wapiti size Cervids 2 0.0 — — Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 37
Table 1. Zooarchaeological findings summarized as NISP and MNI (continued).
Taxon Common name NISP % of class % of total MNI Cervidae wapiti/moose Cervids 1 0.0 — 1 size Odocoileus virginianus White-tailed deer 52 0.4 — 7 Bos taurus Domestic cattle 260 1.9 — 6 Ovis aries Domestic sheep 8 0.1 — 3 Ovis aries/Capra hircus Domestic sheep or goat 56 0.4 — — Total Mammalia 13,537 — 92.6 — Class unknown 34 — — — Total unknown 34 — 0.2 — Total 14,616 — 100.0 — Note: Taxonomy follows
relatively low frequency of butchered bone primary, secondary, or tertiary butchering cut (tab. 3), because it is only when a bone has that could have accommodated that bone. been cut that it can be assigned to a secondary When cut marks were present, the bone could meat cut with any degree of confidence. The often be equated with a specific meat cut low frequency of butchering cuts effected with a shown on butchering diagrams used during cleaver is partly a function of the fact that there the 19th century (De Voe 1867; Schulz and is a high frequency of teeth and incomplete Gust 1983; Szuter 1996), as summarized and head and foot elements that do not exhibit confirmed zooarchaeologically by James (1997) for butchering marks (nor would that be expected for four 19th-century Ontario rural domestic sites. those elements). These portions of the body are For example, a complete sheep scapula would often the byproducts of primary butchering, be classified as a shoulder cut (secondary cut), for study purposes defined as the cuts that but a sheep scapula that was cut more or less reduce the carcass of large mammals, such on the horizontal plane would equate to a as pigs, cows, and sheep, into a headless shoulder blade chop (tertiary/table cut). and footless torso that can be split down The heads and the feet, especially of cows the middle along the vertebrae and further and sheep, are often considered primary subdivided. Secondary cuts are those cuts made butchering waste during the 19th century, but an to divide the primary cuts into smaller units of examination of 18th-century cookbooks shows meat. Tertiary cuts divide the secondary cuts that these portions were used extensively in into meal-size or even plate-size portions. In Georgian cooking. We do not know whether the absence of cut marks on the bone, or when the butchering units detailed by James (1997) the bone could not be assigned to a position in a for the 19th century were employed in the series, bones were assigned to the most specific 18th century. It seems safe to assume that
Table 2. Cow osteometry, following Angela von den Driesch (1976).
Provenience Element Side Measurement to nearest 0.1 mm Feature 17 (fill) Humerus Bd Right 85.0 Feature 17 (fill) Radio-ulna Bd Right 78.0 Feature 9 (fill) Tibia Bd Left 61.8 Unit 513N-201E (topsoil) Tibia Bd Left 67.7 (minimum) Feature 9 (fill) Calcaneus GL Right 144.9 38 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Table 3. Comparison of frequency of cut-bone NISP at three Ontario domestic sites. Cartwright is a late 18th- to early 19th-century mansion in what is now Kingston, Ontario; the Ste. Famille Separate School collection pertains to late 19th-century row housing in LeBreton Flats, Ottawa.
Ste. Famille Separate Butler* (AhGs-18) Cartwright† (BbGc-92) School‡ (BiFw-88) Taxon NISP No. cut % cut NISP No. cut % cut NISP No. cut % cut Sus scrofa 415 9 2 95 19 20 667 251 38 Odocoileus virginianus 52 7 13 23 9 39 — — — Bos taurus 260 26 10 796 522 66 585 438 75 Ovis aries, O. aries/ 64 5 8 306 108 35 360 205 57 Capra hircus *Needs-Howarth (2010b). †Needs-Howarth (2009). ‡Needs-Howarth (2010a). the long bones included in a particular, can be reconstructed—although it must be named, meat cut (e.g., “ham” or “loin”) would noted that, because of various pre-excavation be the same, but we are on less-certain ground taphonomic factors, it is unlikely that our regarding inclusion of adjacent bones, including excavated assemblage contains all the bone carpals, tarsals, metacarpals, metatarsals, and waste that was originally deposited. phalanges. In the case of the deer bones, the presence of the head and feet indicates that A Meal at John and Catharine Butler’s whole animals were brought back to the House Butler farm to be butchered. There are several Our hypothetical dinner party may have possible sources for this venison. Because started with ten dishes laid on the table as the John Butler was an Indian agent, it is likely first course. If it were late October, a roast of that native people came to the homestead to venison prepared on a spit might sit at the top conduct business. They may have brought of the table. The roast would come from the deer with them for their own consumption or haunch, as determined by two partial innominate to give or trade to the Butlers. Alternatively, bones and two cut lumbar vertebrae adjacent the deer may have been hunted or otherwise in the vertebral series (the sacral vertebrae are directly obtained by the Butlers. Venison was a missing). At the bottom of the table might sit a highly valued meat source in the Georgian era, baked leg of beef dressed with a wine-and- and period cookbooks present many recipes for mustard sauce. Numerous glass mustard bottles its enjoyment. were found at the Butler site (fig. 5), and their Table 4 lists the meat cuts that are represented shape indicates they held the London type of in the Butler faunal assemblage, together with mustard popular with the British military recipes from Hannah Glasse’s cookbook that (Jones and Smith 1985). One of the bottles was might have incorporated those cuts. Specific imported from the mill of Rhodes and Kemeys elements can be equated with meat cuts of Sparta, New York, which was in business ca. depending upon the portion and the evidence 1796 to 1819 (Horne 1976: 25). It should be noted for butchering. The exercise of comparing that a second commercially prepared foodstuff, recipes to faunal elements was particularly peppermint essence, was also indentified from useful, because it brought to our attention two fragments of a square bottle with elements and species that might not immediately embossed lettering. After it was patented in 1762, be thought of as belonging to a meal, like the it was used both as a flavoring agent and as a American bittern, a member of the bird family medicinal remedy for indigestion (Jones 1981). that includes herons. Hannah Glasse (1774: A variety of contrasting fish dishes were 336) advised that heron should be served with possible, since numerous freshwater fish taxa salt, but not sauce. Thus, from the analysis of were identified in the faunal assemblage, the preceding evidence, a hypothetical meal including whitefish, suckers, bullheads, sunfishes, Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 39
Table 4: Faunal evidence for provisions in Glasse (1774) recipes.
Taxon and meat cut Elements expected and faunal Hannah Glasse 1774 recipe (where applicable) evidence reference and page no. Sturgeon Dermal bones (waste) (n=5) 181 To roast a fillet of sturgeon ... Scutes (waste) (n=44) 181 To boil sturgeon ... FISH Gadidae Vertebrae (waste) (n=4) 225 To make a salt fish pie ... Bittern Post-cranial bones (n=4) 336 To dismember a heron ... in this manner likewise a bittern, using no sauce but salt Duck (A. plathyrynchos and Post-cranial bones (n=63; MNI=5) 79 To boil a duck with onions Anatidae duck size) 78 To dress a wild duck the best way Chicken Post-cranial bones (n=53; MNI=4) 101 To make a curry the Indian way ... take two chickens 71 To force a fowl 8 To make egg sauce for roasted chickens 75 To broil chickens served with
BIRD sauce Turkey Post-cranial bones (n=13; MNI=2) 68 To stew a turkey in celery-sauce 66 To roast a turkey 70 To stew a turkey brown Pigeon (E. migratorius and Post-cranial bones (n=20; MNI=2) 3 To roast ... and when they are Columbidae) enough lay them in the dish, and they will swim with gravy 89 Pigeons in pimlico ... makes a fine dish for a first course 89 To jugg pigeons 90 To stew pigeons Pork Chine Vertebrae (n=1) [could also be 60 To stuff a chine of pork ... make loin] a stuffing of the fat leaf of pork ... have mustard in a cup Loin Thoracic vertebrae 3–14 (n=1) 101 to dress a loin of pork with [could also be chine] onions ... stir in the mustard ... lay the pork in a dish and the onions in a bason Hams Distal femur (n=6; MNE=2) 258 To make pork hams you must Proximal tibia and proximal fibula take a fat hind-quarter of pork and (n=6) cut off a fine ham ... Feet ?Carpals (n=2) 25 To ragoo hogs feet ... boil them ?Tarsals (n=2) until tender then cut into long MAMMAL ?Metacarpal (n=1) thin slices ... add a good deal ?Metatarsal (n=5; MNE=2) of mustard ... they make a very ?Metapodial (n=12; MNE=3) pretty dish fried with butter and ?Phalanges (n=12; MNE=2) mustard ... Venison Hindquarter (haunch) Lumbar vertebra (split) (n=4; 10 To roast venison. Take a haunch MNE=2) and split it ... Sacrum (not present) Innominate (n=2) Femur (n=5; MNE=2) 40 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
Table 4: Faunal evidence for provisions in Glasse (1774) recipes (continued).
Taxon and meat cut Elements expected and faunal Hannah Glasse 1774 recipe (where applicable) evidence reference and page no. Beef Calf’s head (veal) Cranium (n=1 excl. loose teeth) 26 To hash a calf’s head 27 To bake a calf’s head 52 To stew a calf or sheep’s head ... 142 To make a calf’s head pie Foreshank Radius/ulna (n=3; one is slice, 18 To bake a leg of beef ... baked shank cross-cut) meat is added to saucepan with Distal humerus (n=1) gravy, wine, mustard etc to fla- vour ... it is a pretty dish Sirloin Illium (not present) 39 To dress a fillet of beef ... it is Sacrum and sacral vertebrae (n=1) the inside of a sirloin ... have a little good gravy in a dish and sweet sauce in a cup ... 14 Of roasting, boiling. ... If beef ... be sure to paper the top ... [no specific cut directed] Round or buttock; rump Innominate (n=1) 33 To ragoo a piece of beef ... the roast Proximal femur (not present) rump does well, cut off the bone nicely ... when the meat is tender and the sauce thick lay your meat in a dish and pour the sauce over Round; round steak Femur (slice) (n=1?); cleaver cut 136 A beef steak pudding ... take distally only) fine rump steaks Mutton MAMMAL Head Cranium (n=3 excl. loose teeth; 52 To stew a calf or sheeps head ... MNE=3) 99 Sheep’s head makes a good broth for Scotch barley soup; head must be chopped to pieces Breast Ventral ribs 31 To collar a breast of mutton Shoulder Scapula (n=5; MNE=3; 3 are blade 73 Mutton chops in disguise chops) 45 A shoulder of mutton in epi- Proximal humerus (not present) gram Loin Lumbar vertebra (split) (n=1) 50 Baked mutton chops ... take a loin and cut into steaks ... 100 Mutton kebob’d ... take a loin Hind quarter Tibia (n=5; MNE=2) [could also be 10 To roast mutton venison full leg] fashion. Take a hind quarter of fat Femur (n=3; MNE=2) [could also mutton ... be full leg] Full leg Femur (n=3; MNE=2) [could also 12 A leg of mutton six pounds will be hind quarter] take an hour at a quick fire ... Tibia (n=5; MNE=2) [could also be hind quarter] ?Metatarsal (n=3) Notes: Elements included in meat cuts for pig, cow, and sheep are based on James (1997). Alternate meat cuts for items that do not exhibit cut marks and/or could not be assigned to position are indicated in square brackets. Elements whose inclusion in a particular meat cut is uncertain are preceded by a question mark (see text for explanation). MNI/MNE is 1, unless otherwise indicated. Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 41
Figure 5. A variety of mustard bottles, including one with the horizontal embossed letters: KEMEYS (top). (Photo by Archaeological Services Inc., 2011.) 42 MacDonald & Needs-Howarth/Dining with John and Catharine Butler
bass, walleye or sauger, and drum. These were bones may, however, represent only a single probably caught recreationally either in Lake fish, as each sturgeon has five rows of bony Ontario—especially whitefish, walleye, and scutes that survive well archaeologically. In drum (Scott and Crossman 1973: 269–277, 767– that sense, archaeological sturgeon remains are 774, 812–816)—in the Niagara River and its not comparable to those of other fish (Needs- adjacent wetlands, or in Two Mile Creek. The Howarth 2001). The remaining dishes would assemblage also included some bones of have comprised a variety of seasonal fruits and marine fish, in the form of four vertebrae of vegetables, such as stewed pears, mushrooms, the cod family (Gadidae) that are not burbot. apple tart, sliced pippin apples in syrup, and These likely represent preserved (that is, sweet custards and jellies. The custard might have salted) fish, since fresh cod or haddock would been baked in one of two buff earthenware not stay fresh for long while being transported dishes decorated with trailed slip motifs that link from the eastern seaboard under 18th-century them to a tradition of local ceramic production conditions. Unfortunately, within the family in the northeastern U.S. that goes back to the Gadidae, vertebral identifications below the early 18th century (Stone, Little, and Israel 1973; level of family are hampered by the osteological Hamell 1974; Bower 1985). similarities among different marine members The meal would not be complete until the of the family (see e.g., Colley 1989) so it is not tablecloth was removed and the final dishes certain which species is represented. were placed on the table. Very few of these dishes would have left a signature in the faunal A side dish might comprise “pigeons in assemblage because meat was eschewed in pimlico,” which Hannah Glasse advised favor of shellfish; offal, such as sweetbreads; would make a fine first course (Glasse 1774: and small game birds served with a variety of 89). Twelve bones were positively identified as vegetables and sweet dishes during the third passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), course. Nevertheless, one specimen in the whereas a further nine were identified only to assemblage could be evidence of a delicacy family Columbidae. In this time and place, the purposefully snared, as opposed to being the word “pigeon” could refer to either a rock unfortunate victim of a marauding cat: a bird dove (Columba livia), mourning dove (Zenaida of songbird size. This is the conclusion drawn macroura), or passenger pigeon. Rock dove was after reading the sample menu provided by first introduced in 1606 at Port-Royal, Nova Mrs. Glasse for October (1805: 313), which Scotia (Schorger 1952), and it certainly was a includes pigs’ ears and larks, and serves as a possibility by this time in the Niagara area. reminder that it is important to contextualize Also included in this course would be a home- archaeological data because of changes in prepared ham, as evinced by the residual foot human foodways over time. bones that could have come from butchering a fat hindquarter of pork to make the ham. Most certainly during the second course, Conclusion roasted fowl, including turkey and wild duck, The preceding has outlined a fictional would have been placed at the top and bottom of dinner party held at 4 P.M. in the home of John the table. When Elizabeth Simcoe was resident in and Catharine Butler, in the town of Newark, Upper Canada with her husband, the lieutenant Upper Canada, before the close of the 18th governor, she remarked that the wild ducks century. In linking the zooarchaeological data there were better than any she had tasted in to the ceramic vessel forms and comparing England because they had fed on wild rice them with contemporary recipes and cooking (Innis 1965: 109). Mrs. Glasse advised that wild practices, this study contributes to a body of duck should be roasted as simply as possible, literature based on an anthropological with no stuffing, and dressed with lemon and approach to the meaning of food that goes its own gravy (Glasse 1774: 78). Side dishes back to Otto’s (1984) study of the Cannon’s might have included a ragout of hog’s feet Point Plantation. Thirty years later, it is an fried in butter and served in a mustard sauce, approach that is still underused, but that can and boiled sturgeon. Sturgeon accounts for provide a satisfying holistic explanation of a 20% of the fish assemblage bone count. These culture’s foodways (Landon 2005: 25). Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 42, 2013 43
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Thick, Malcolm Author Information 1998 The Neat House Gardens: Early Market Gardening around London. Prospect Books, Totnes, UK. Eva MacDonald is a senior archaeologist and manager of historical archaeology with Webb, Catharine Archaeological Services, Inc., of Toronto. She 1994 Fort York Archaeological Project 1987–1994. holds an M.Sc. in anthropology from the Excavation, Mitigation, and Research: A University of Toronto. Her Master’s thesis Summary Review of the Archaeological Resource at Historic Fort York, Toronto. explored German foodways in the context of Manuscript, Toronto Historical Board, Toronto. immigration to Markham Township, Ontario, in the late 18th century. Wilson, Bruce 1991 Patronage and Power: The Early Political Eva MacDonald Culture of the Niagara Peninsula. In The Archaeological Services, Inc. Capital Years: Niagara-on-the-Lake 1792–1796, ed. by Richard Merritt, Nancy Butler, and Michael Toronto, ON Power, 45–66. Dundurn Press, Toronto. Canada [email protected] Wilson, C. Anne 2004 Meal Patterns and Food Supply in Suzanne Needs-Howarth holds an M.Sc. in Victorian Britain. In Eating with the anthropology from the University of Toronto Victorians, ed. by C. Anne Wilson, xiii– xviii. Sutton, Stroud, UK. and a Ph.D. in archaeology from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands. Wilson, Pearl Her zooarchaeological consultancy work 1975 Consumer Buying in Upper Canada 1791– encompasses both precontact Aboriginal and 1840. In Historical Essays on Upper Canada, Euro-Canadian sites in Ontario. ed. by J. K. Johnson, 216–225. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto. Suzanne Needs-Howarth Wood, J. David Perca Zooarchaeological Research 2000 Making Ontario: Agricultural Colonization Toronto, ON and Landscape Re-creation before the Railway. Canada McGill–Queen’s University Press, Montreal. [email protected]